1975 Pastoral

I was shooting stills for a band at a Bluegrass Music Festival near Jacksonville. The band had finished their set and I was wandering around looking for shots in the low afternoon sun when I came upon a father and daughter picking wildflowers. The father saw me raise my camera. He stepped back, revealing this beautiful composition.

Technically, the Schneider 135 I was using on my battered Retina Reflex was slightly soft. Built in the early sixties, that lens didn’t have the modern coatings that render contrast so well in backlit situations like this. The slide film I shot with possessed less dynamic range than an iPhone.

But looking at this photograph, the combination of an imperfect lens and transparency film express a dreamy, impressionistic look that captured the moment with an emotional clarity that technically superior equipment might have missed.